Mother's Touch
by Gaudete
Summary: 8 year old Sam has a moment where he experiences what it would be like to have a mother's touch.


**Created during a bad mood. Rating K. No warnings.

* * *

**Playgrounds were fun for kids, but not for a Winchester. Sam and Dean saw other children living a normal life with overprotective mothers quickly swooping in to ease a minor hurt, just like their father swooped in to save people from evil things. Truth was even at 8 and 12 they could outrun, outfight, outlast, the kids on this playground. Dad had trained them as warriors and now he had left them at the playground while he hunted down a spirit. Dean saw the pained look in his brother's eyes as he watched the kids having fun, having normal. It hurt him seeing Sam sad. Sammy didn't really understand everything that went on in their lives, but he knew it wasn't normal. He would never be able to give Sam normal, but he could try.

"Come on. I'll push you on the swings." He jerked his brother up and ran toward the swings. Dean picked a swing set where another kid, a little boy, was being pushed by a young girl.

Sam was laughing! That was rare in their world so Dean knew he was doing something right. After a few minutes of pushing Sam the young lady asked him if he would like to swing. She offered to push all three of them. Sam made his brother get in the swing beside him. After a while Sam started swinging himself getting higher and higher.

"Don't swing too high, you might fall out." The lady said to him as he went even higher. That was what a mother would say to her child. Sam felt protected, invincible. If he let himself believe even for a moment that his life was normal then maybe…

"Sam, don't get to high," his brother said. Sam noted the concern in Dean's voice.

He wanted to jump out of the swing, to see if he could fly. Playing was foreign to him, but on the swing set with the air and the feeling in his stomach everything felt right with the world. He was normal, he was a kid, he was having fun! Dad had taught him how to fall, so jumping wouldn't be that big of a deal. At 8 years old Sam Winchester didn't have a grasp of gravity or what jumping out of a swing might mean injury wise. Hitting the ground on his feet at first sent a painful jarring sensation up his body. The momentum from jumping caused him to fall forward, and Winchester luck had him hitting the only rock within a mile radius with his knee. The rock was sharp and ripped both fabric and flesh.

Dean jumped out of his swing and was at his brother's side a few seconds after Sam fell. "It's ok Sammy, it's not that bad." He tried to reassure his baby brother it was ok. And it was, he was there, he would take care of it.

The lady bent down in front of them. "That looks painful. Can I see it?"

Dad had hammered into their heads not to trust strangers. But if you needed to trust a stranger, females were usually much more trustworthy then males. Dean was there with Sam, he wouldn't let anyone hurt his brother but Sam answered quickly.

"Ok." He wanted to know what a mother's touch would feel like. In all his 8 years he had never been touched or fussed over by a woman.

So this was what having a mother would be like he thought as the lady gently peeled away the torn fabric so she could look at his knee. She pulled out a small first aid kit from her bag.

"I'm going to talk you through what I'm doing ok." She realized she didn't know their names. "I'm Loti, and that's my brother Roger."

The brothers looked at the blonde boy sitting quietly on the swing.

"What's your names?"

"Sam, and this is my brother Dean."

She smiled, it was a perfect angel's smile Sam thought.

"Well Sam your brother is going to help me fix your knee."

That was a point for her with Dean. Having him help patch Sammy up. Instinctively he knew what to do so he left Sam's side to move beside Loti and got the antiseptic wipe out.

"I'll clean it," she said to Dean. "You can bandage it for me."

The wipe stung but the gentle pressure she used was much nicer than if Dean was doing it. Dean would want to scrub it to make sure it was really good and clean. Loti was cleaning it just as well but there was no roughness. When she was done Dean put the bandage on it. Sam was feeling much better but suddenly he heard a horrible noise coming from down the street. He jumped.

What life had these boys been through that the sound of the old, out of tune ice cream truck made Sam jump? She almost laughed but didn't. They let her buy ice cream for them and all four sat at a picnic table trying to eat it before it melted. Just as they finished John came over to get his sons.

"Thank you," he said as the boys filled him in on their day. Both were talking a mile a minute which meant they were excited. He was satisfied with the day. The boys had learned a good lesson on who to trust. He hadn't planned it but it was a good lesson to learn.

"No problem," Loti said as they said goodbye.

Sam was happy that for a short time he got the chance to experience what he had always thought a mother's touch would be like. The ice cream helped him feel that for a while he was part of a normal family. That's what families do, take care of each other, spend time with each other. His family did that but he didn't have a mom. He ran back to hug Loti before getting in the car. She hugged him tightly back.

* * *

20 years later Sam and Dean sat in the Impala watching the same playground. It was empty now, the swings silent for at least a decade. The brothers had recently been reunited after Sam jumped into the Pit. This was their second hunt back in the Impala. It was personal for Sam.

For the 100th time he looked at the old newspaper clipping they had found. On the front page was the smiling portrait of Loti looking so angelic, her brother sitting on her lap. The headline read "_Family Devastated by the Grizzly Murder of Daughter and Son._"

Tonight Loti and little Roger would see justice served. Sam Winchester would make certain of that.

* * *

**like it or put you in a bad mood too?**


End file.
